Forest Laboratories (FRA:FQX) Quality Rank

Forest Laboratories, Inc. is a Delaware corporation organized in 1956. The Company develops, manufactures and sells branded forms of ethical drug products most of which require a physician's prescription. The Company's most important United States products are marketed directly, or 'detailed,' to physicians by its salesforces. It emphasizes detailing to physicians of those branded ethical drugs which have the most potential for growth and benefit to patients. The Company also develops and introduces new products, including products developed in collaboration with licensing partners. The Company's products include those developed by it and those acquired from other pharmaceutical companies and integrated into its marketing and distribution systems. It actively promotes in the United States those branded products which have the most potential for growth and patient benefit, and which enable its salesforces to concentrate on groups of physicians who are high prescribers of its products. Such products include: Lexapro, its SSRI for the treatment of major depression in adults and adolescents and GAD in adults; Namenda, its NMDA antagonist for the treatment of moderate and severe Alzheimer's disease; Bystolic, its beta-blocker for the treatment of hypertension; and Savella, its newest product, an SNRI for the management of fibromyalgia. The Company's United Kingdom and Ireland subsidiaries sell both ethical products and over-the-counter preparations. Their most important products include Sudocrem, a topical preparation for the treatment of diaper rash; Colomycin, an antibiotic used in the treatment of cystic fibrosis; Infacol, used to treat infant colic; and Exorex, used in the treatment of eczema and psoriasis. The pharmaceutical industry is subject to comprehensive government regulation which substantially increases the difficulty and cost incurred in obtaining the approval to market newly proposed drug products and maintaining the approval to market existing drugs.